Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Assembly unanimously approved a bill to award death sentence to those convicted of raping girls aged 12 and below on the first day of Winter Session. The bill was brought for discussion in the Cabinet last week following a recent announcement by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that laws will be strengthened to protect girls.
The Madhya Pradesh government also decided to give harsher punishment to those guilty of molesting, stalking and harassing women. Now, a fine of Rs 1 lakh will also be imposed on such offenders, announced Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya. The government also approved the proposal which says if a woman accuses a man of raping her on the pretext of marrying her, the crime will be treated as a cognizable crime.
The Madhya Pradesh government had recently come in for criticism over recent incidents of rape in the state. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2015, released in August last year, showed that Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of rape cases (4,391) in the country. According to the NCRB data for 2014, the state reported 5,076 rape cases, which was 14 per cent of the total rape incidents reported in the country.
In October this year, a 19-year-old UPSC aspirant was allegedly raped when she was returning home from a coaching institute. After public outrage, some police officers were suspended and transferred for the delay in registering an FIR. Recently, two women, including a police constable, alleged sexual assault and exploitation by two high-rank officers of Madhya Pradesh police department.
